The Old Country Deli crew warms up near Broad Street on Farmer's Market night.

By Teresa Mariani

Locals Know: Farmers' Market is one of the best things about San Luis Obispo.

It's a lot more than just a place for grandmas to buy fresh onions, Farmer's Market, SLO Style, is a street fair: a place to see and be seen, shop, enjoy live music and nibble your way through an array of great food.

Where else can you stroll down the street and choose from among barbecued ribs, fresh tamales, or shish-kebabs, then sit on the sidewalk chowing down while watching a puppet show with your kids - then pick up a basket of fresh strawberries and a bouquet of sweet peas on your way home?

Not many places - and hardly anywhere with the same relaxed atmosphere that settles over downtown every Thursday night in San Luis Obispo.

In fact, the city's Farmers' Market recently earned a place on the "Best 50 Spots in the West," a list compiled by American West Travelogue. (The Farmers' Market award is ranked right next to the magazine's designation of San Luis Obispo as "Best Small City" in the west.) The Thursday night market is also the model for a flock of California cities now trying to imitate its success.

Farmers' Market, SLO Style, got started in 1983. City leaders joined forces and came up with Farmers' Market as a way to stop teens from "cruising" Higuera Street - the main drag through downtown. The city's Business Improvement Association (now the Downtown Association) started scheduling 'Thursday Night Activities' and entertainment to bring families downtown, and invited the farmers in for a farmers' market.

The city chipped in by closing off four blocks of Higuera Street from 6 to 9 p.m. for the weekly event, and downtown stores extended their hours to 9 p.m.

It worked better than anyone imagined. Gone are the cruisers. "It is kind of hard to cruise with the street closed," laughs current downtown promotions assistant Katy McGrath.

In their place are pedestrians - lots of them. Nearly two decades after its birth, San Luis Obispo's Thursday Night Farmer's Market regularly draws crowds of about 10,000 during the summertime, and about half that number during winter. Farmers' Market goes on rain or shine, and thanks to a mild coastal climate and fate it's pretty much a sure-fire year-round thing.

It's also true to its name. Every Thursday night, Two full blocks of Higuera Street (between Osos and Chorro streets) are lined with farmers offering produce worthy of the nation's top gourmet restaurants: leeks, onions, broccoli, carrots, butter lettuce, arrugula, vine-ripened tomatoes, oyster mushrooms, Yukon gold potatoes, snap peas, green beans, and more.

You can also find fresh fruit there almost any season: juicy ripe strawberries from February or March through May and June (a local specialty), cherries and peaches and plums in spring, raspberries and blackberries in summer, tart crisp See Canyon apples in fall, tangerines, oranges, lemons and limes in winter and early spring, along with the exotics, like cherimoyas and feijoas.

All come from locally owned farms, as do the fresh-cut flowers in their season: fragrant sweet peas bursting with vibrant color, cut roses, tulips, and sweet-smelling delicate tuberoses, bright yellow sunflowers, plus dried flower arrangements.

The produce draws thousands of good cooks every week. "I think the people who live here really do plan on coming to Farmer's Market to buy their fruit and vegetables for the week," McGrath says.

Plenty of families, both local and vacationers, head downtown for just a plain good meal on Thursday nights, and some of the best deals around. The downtown restaurants haul in huge oak-pit barbecues and start cooking outside a little before 6 p.m., when Higuera Street officially closes to traffic.

The San Luis Obispo restaurants take their barbecues seriously. Every year the city hosts a rib contest to see who cooks up the best. (Old Country Deli is a top contender, holding a string of 1st Place awards that span decades. Its barbecue pit is at the south end of Farmers' Market, near Nipomo Street).

A stroll down Higuera Street Thursday night is not for anyone trying to stick to a diet (or vegetarians either, for that matter). The scent of wood smoke and sizzling meat wafts everywhere. Almost all of the restaurant barbecues serve beef ribs, tri-tip and tri-tip sandwiches, barbecued sausages and barbecued chicken. Plenty more offer shish kebabs: perfectly grilled chunks of meat and onions, bell pepper and mushrooms grilled on a stick.

The steakhouses aren't the only ones getting into the barbecue act. Try the grilled calzone from Buona Tavola (look for their booth between Osos and Morro streets). The vegetable calzone is a pocket bread stuffed with marinated veggies and melted cheese - a great meal even meat lovers will enjoy. You can also find pizza and excellent tamales (between Chorro and Broad) as well as Chinese food (check out the Chinese shish kebabs from Golden China between Broad and Nipomo).

Prices range from $1.25 for a rib or sausage on a stick up to $5 or $6 for a full platter of ribs, beans and garlic bread. Toss in a soda and you've got great deals for a family meal.

Most families just find a spot on the sidewalk, plunk down and eat. Or you can grab your grub and stroll to the walkway, picnic tables and benches along San Luis Creek.

Afterwards, you can enjoy live music, browse craft booths and stores, or watch as your kids get their faces painted by local artists. The Downtown Association schedules free entertainment at four intersections along Higuera Street: at Morro, Chorro, Garden, Broad and Nipomo streets.

Entertainment runs the gamut from kid-oriented puppet shows that leave the little ones laughing to swing bands to rock bands to folk music to ethnic bands. (There's usually at least one band playing fantastic Andean music).

"We try to appeal to crowds between their late 20s and early 40s," McGrath explains. "We go for kind of upbeat stuff. Next week the bands are sort of Beach Boys, folk music, and salsa and mambo."

Holidays also feature special Farmers Market events, like the snow trucked in every December so Central Coast kids can come downtown and enjoy an old-fashioned snowball fight. (Be warned: Grown-ups don't get to play in the snow. Only kids.)

If you're thinking with all that action and crowds of thousands the whole thing sounds like one giant traffic jam, think again. True, it can get crowded. But Farmers' Market draws a happy crowd: kids clutching cookies, moms buying strawberries, and college kids carrying bouquets of flowers.

Even when Higuera Street is elbow to elbow on Thursday night, it's still fun. "San Luis Obispo is such a nice place to live," McGrath explains, "and Farmers' Market has really become a big part of it."

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Teresa Mariani is a freelance writer based in San Luis Obispo who loves to buy strawberries at Farmers' Market.